Sporting News' Hall of Fame college basketball writer analyzes one subject in depth and answers four questions burning in his sport—after relentlessly practicing The Mikan Drill on his living room basketball hoop.

It’ll never be the holiday that “Signing Day” is for football prospects, but the early letter-of-intent period for basketball begins Nov. 13. It’s not an excuse to miss work or watch ESPNU all day or jam the Internet recruiting sites. But that approaching date does signal a warning to some prominent basketball programs that they’ll need to get moving to fill up their 2014 classes.

For Roy Williams at North Carolina, there are no worries other than assuring that the three high-level prospects who long ago committed to the Tar Heels sign their names in the proper place. He’s got his best class in years.

Ohio State, Maryland and Georgetown all are off to excellent recruiting starts.

For some others, though, it’s time to hustle:

Michigan State. The Spartans will lose power forward Adreian Payne and point guard Keith Appling for certain, and almost certainly shooting guard Gary Harris. The Spartans are positioned to withstand some of those loses, particularly with feisty point guard Lourawls Nairn committed.

The Spartans are fairly well stocked with big bodies, but they need another game-changer up front, which is why they’re hot after Milwaukee’s 6-9 Kevon Looney, Sporting News’ No. 10 prospect in the 2014 class, and Cliff Alexander of Chicago, who is ranked No. 5. Getting either would be a huge victory for coach Tom Izzo.

With Harris likely to head to the NBA, the Spartans will need some scoring punch on the perimeter. Nairn is a set-em-up/shut-em-down point guard. He’s not going to produce a lot of points on his own. So Michigan State is trying to lure 6-5 Devin Booker from Mississippi, 6-6 Trevon Bluiett from Indianapolis and 6-2 James Blackmon of Marion, Ind. Any one of the three would fill the need.

Duke. Look, this may be a mere technicality. The Blue Devils have been the presumptive leaders to land the 1-2 combination of center Jahlil Okafor and point guard Tyus Jones for months. If they finish off that job, it won’t matter who else they get. They’ll be contending for the 2015 NCAA championship.

They also could add 6-6 wing Justise Winslow of Houston, SN’s No. 9 prospect, who could be taught to function as a Ron Artest-level defender.

It’s important that Duke land a significant class, though, because there’ll be an opportunity for two or more of its top players to depart for the NBA after this season.

UCLA. The Wear twins hit their expiration date after this season, and forward/guard/whatever Kyle Anderson already has made it clear his sophomore season will be his last with the Bruins. It’ll help to have Isaac Hamilton eligible next season; it might be a blessing that he wasn’t released to play this year, on the off chance he'd pull a Trevor Ariza and depart after an OK freshman year.

But new coach Steve Alford is going to need more. It’s always toughest for a coach to recruit in his first year on the job because prospects move so much more quickly now in cutting down the list of schools they’ll consider.

The Bruins had a commitment from Bluiett, but he withdrew citing the need to be closer to home. They’re listed with Looney and Winslow, but each seems to be a longshot to head to the West Coast. Scout.com recruiting analyst Brian Snow said Looney has been very quiet about his process but is believed to be thinking of UCLA as a fourth option.

“An official visit could change things, but without it that would be tough,” Snow said.

UCLA’s need is especially acute in the frontcourt, where only Wanaah Bail and Tony Parker are scheduled to remain after this year. There’s a chance with 7-0 center Thomas Welsh, who has visited the Bruins and the California Golden Bears. UCLA also could use a point guard; there is no elite prospect on the current roster at the game’s most important position.

The good news: 2015 is loaded with supreme California talent, and Alford will have had a fair amount of time to connect with those prospects.

“Obviously, UCLA has to bring in talent,” Snow said. “They have to get a point guard, and they’re not going to get one that’s an impact guy in this class. It’s not looking great.”

DeCourcy: Oh, Doug is definitely smart. I love listening to his commentary on games and hate reading the columns he writes for CBSSports.com, because someone who just writes a piece here and there shouldn’t be able to do it as well as he does. It’s like somebody sitting down at a piano without lessons and suddenly pounding out coherent Tchaikovsky.

Whatever Big Blue fans will say about Doug’s ranking, and a lot of it isn’t technically printable unless we’re writing for Deadspin, there is no correct answer at this point. If he’d stood apart from the crowd last year and said predicting UK to become a top-five team was not only wrong, it was insanity, he’d have been right. He says he did say that, so that was an excellent call.

Gottlieb believes North Carolina and Oklahoma State will have better seasons than UK and Kansas, the two most talented teams in college basketball. He projected the Jayhawks to finish 10th. He very well could turn out to be right. Obviously, our publication does not agree. If anything, after watching KU in practice twice last week, I’d move the Jayhawks up from No. 6, possibly even as high as No. 2. I don’t get to play that mulligan, though.

Where I don’t agree with Gottlieb is in the defense he presented of these projections, pointing to last year’s results—UK’s failure to make the NCAAs, its NIT loss to Robert Morris.

This is the 2014 season, not 1994. Past performance is not an indicator of future results.

When John Calipari took over UK in 2009-10, the Wildcats were coming off an NIT appearance and loss to Notre Dame. With John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins making All-America, the Wildcats won 35 games in his first season and reached the Elite Eight. Adding great talent can turn around a team instantly, and the NBA Draft and recruiting analysts all insist UK added great talent.

Gottlieb also expressed concern about the Harrison twins and whether they would blend comfortably into the chemistry of a championship team. They’ll have to prove they can, just as Amile Jefferson and Marshall Plumlee will have to demonstrate they can hold down the center spot for Gottlieb’s No. 3 team (Duke), just as Chris Jones will have to adjust to Division I playmaking and lack of height will have to be overcome by his No. 2 team (Louisville), and Keith Appling will have to distribute the basketball after two seasons in which he did not for Gottlieb’s No. 1 (Michigan State).

All the top projected teams have issues. They all have very good players. Not all of them have multiple NBA lottery-level draft picks. It should be a tremendous season. I can’t wait to hear what Gottlieb has to say about it as the year progresses.

DeCourcy: He said it during a practice session. If everything that’s said by a coach during a practice was meant to be taken literally—well, you’ve seen the Rutgers tapes. Excuse me while I shudder.

I’d imagine Enfield was frustrated by a lack of pace and energy demonstrated by his team and he chose a phrase certain to get their attention. It also got ours. I’ve no doubt it has been noted by UCLA coach Steve Alford, who insists his Bruins teams will not resemble the New Mexico squad that last season won the Mountain West with a 67-point average.

In Alford’s defense, his 2010 team also won the league and scored 76 points per game, with four players producing double-figure averages. Of course, last year’s Bruins averaged 74 points, and still Bill Walton acted as though he’d wandered into the 1940s every time he broadcast a Bruins game. So I’m not sure what Alford will have to do to please people.

Enfield wants USC to be cool, in the way Florida Gulf Coast became cool for that two-week period in March that led to him getting the Trojans job. This comment created headlines for every major sports website. His message was delivered not only to the players on the court, but to a lot of people who’d probably already forgotten that “Dunk City” had moved operations to the West Coast.

4. Big East coaches ranked Butler No. 9 in its preseason poll. We know that Brad Stevens is gone, but the Bulldogs can’t be that bad, can they?

DeCourcy: As terrific as Stevens is as a coach, I’m not sure his presence would have been worth more than another notch in the standings projected by the Big East coaches.

This is about talent, and Butler’s potential to enter its first season in the league as a Big East contender was wrecked when power forward Roosevelt Jones was lost for the year with a wrist injury. Jones was a matchup nightmare for opponents, a muscular wide-body who could attack defenses like a point guard. He was the Bulldogs’ best playmaker last season, averaging 3.5 assists, and he converted 48.5 percent of his shot attempts. He also was the team’s No. 2 rebounder.

Butler already was having to replace leading scorer Rotnei Clarke and center Andrew Smith, who averaged 28.2 points combined. Throw in Jones and you’re up to 38.3 points, and that’s from a team that averaged 69. Butler’s recruiting class consists of four three-star players. The program never turned its Final Four success into a recruiting upgrade, which might have been fine if the Bulldogs remained in the Horizon League or even the Atlantic 10 but might prove to be problematic in the more talented Big East.

I think Brandon Miller is an excellent coaching prospect. Butler is a tougher job than it was two years ago, however, and tougher still with Jones wearing street clothes.

5. There are no college basketball writers on the NCAA Tournament selection committee. If asked, would you like that opportunity?

DeCourcy: When I was in high school or college, I’d read the editor's note pieces at the front of Sports Illustrated about a particular writer whose work was featured in that week’s issue and picture one being written about me. When then-editor John Rawlings put one of those together about me a few years into my run at Sporting News, I figured I’d achieved what I’d imagined, and that pleasure was doubled when Garry Howard did the same a couple years back.

When I was sitting at the U.S. Basketball Writers awards breakfast in 1990 and Bob Hamel, Bob Hentzen and Bill Brill were inducted into the organization’s Hall of Fame, even though it was only the second Final Four I covered I told myself I wanted to be in that position someday. I was fortunate enough to achieve that goal, as well, in 2012.

Being on the selection committee, though?

That’s one dream I don’t imagine will come true. I’d settle for being embedded as a writer observing the deliberations, just to see how it all plays out. I don’t expect that’s in the plans.

I’d promise not to eat any of the ice cream they serve up for the committee, leave it all for the others, but I don’t think even that would help.